Flood-hit pig farmers get counselling

Queensland pig farmers have been offered counselling in the wake of flooding that wiped out large numbers of stock.

Queensland Pork chief executive officer John Coward says some North Burnett farmers risked their lives by wading through waist-deep water to save drowning piglets.

Mr Coward says about 4,000 pigs died and the psychological impacts for farmers have been extreme.

"We had one farm where the farmers recovered 80 per cent of their stock and got it to higher ground and they spent the night on the higher ground with the pigs till the staff were rescued at two in the morning with a helicopter," he said.

"That type of dedication and trauma to those people is quite immense."

Covering nearly one-third of the continent, in deserts with poor soils, humble Australian spinifex grasses contain nano-sized particles that can amp the performance of a range of everyday items, researcher Nasim Amiralian writes.

Former treasurer Wayne Swan says that real private sector wages have grown by just 1 per cent under the Abbott and Turnbull governments, which he says equates to only one year of growth under the previous Labor government.